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Reid’s purr works its magic, and she goes soft in my arms, burying her face in my neck. Her tears are silent, but I feel each one as they drip onto my chest.
I caress along the blanket up and down her back. “Tell me about when you first met? Was he good to you then?”
Her voice is thick when she speaks, her finger running back and forth along my tattoo of the Scorpio sign on my neck. “Trent was better than I ever expected. Honestly, I thought I’d won the lottery.”
“What made you think that?” Reid asks.
“Being from Crawley, I grew up without alphas ever staying around. My father never claimed me or my sister. He had a pack in another town, and we weren’t anyone to him except some kids in the house when he visited my mom.”
No wonder she’s so skittish. She’s only ever seen alphas at their worst. I keep my hands moving, wanting her to know I’m here.
She takes a deep breath before speaking again. “Trent wasn’t like my family. He paid our bills on time. He didn’t go out drinking, and even though he worked at a club, he didn’t get involved in shit. He told me he was okay with being with a beta, even when I couldn’t always give him what he wanted.”
Reid’s strained voice asks, “What did he want?”
“An omega. Knots. Heats. When we chose to have Emmaline, I thought we were solid. And we were okay for a while. Then he started working a lot more, and his fuse got shorter.”
“Then what happened?” I ask, my gut sinking. I’m already queasy and I know it gets worse.
“One day, I’m in the car line to pick up Ben, and I get a text saying he met his match and wants to start his life with her.”
“He did what now?” Reid growls, his bond surging with outrage. His arm tightens on both of us, his body tense.
“He sent a picture of her bite.” Cammie shrugs, curling into my chest. It feels as if she folds into herself, trying to make herself small. “And I took the kids out for pizza.”
My tears can’t be stopped as I imagine her in that car, her kids in the back seat. She took them for pizza? How the fuck did she not break down? And why the fuck would anyone ever be so cruel? Cammie keeps talking, and I brace myself.
“He came home the next morning with Veronica, his scent match. He introduced her to the kids as his mate and put the house up for sale, and that was that. He expected me to understand. And I did understand.”
“Understand what, baby?” I ask, pulling her back enough that I can see her eyes. They’re full of resignation and so much pain that it steals my breath.
Reid leans over my shoulder, tugging her chin. “What could you understand about something so wrong?”
“That he was through with us,” her voice hitches, and she trembles. “That’s what happens to betas.”
“Oh, baby,” my voice wobbles and cracks, my heart splintering. I pull her back to me, wrapping my arms tightly around her. “I’m sorry he ever treated you that way, made you think you weren’t enough.”
Reid grunts behind me and reaches for her, but it’s awkward as hell with her straddling my lap. His annoyance flares in the bond, his alpha desperate to comfort her.
I give her one last squeeze and pass her to him. She needs his solidness just as much as he needs to give her comfort. And she needs to know that our alpha isn’t that asshole, that he will protect her heart. She hiccups, the tears flowing freely now, and curls up in a ball on his lap.
His soothing purr, deep and so resonant, sounds in the room. I let out a breath, lying beside them and smoothing her hair. She may need our alpha right now, but we all need the contact.
Reid rubs her back, keeping his voice smooth and slow. “He’s full of bullshit, sweetheart. Undeserving of the title alpha. And that will never happen again. You’re ours. I will pull the papers as soon as you say the word. Mark you as mine whenever you’re ready. Papers or no, sweetheart, we claim you all.”
Cammie doesn’t respond with words, but she uncurls a muscle at a time until, eventually, she’s snuggling him instead of clinging for life. Her tears dry up quicker than my own. Whenever I think about her in the car, having to face it alone, I start again.
We settle with her lying between us, Reid as our big spoon and me curling around her from the front. Our purrs work together with our hands, soothing her until she falls back asleep, tuckered out by the crying. Reid and I don’t speak, but in our bond, we vow to never let her or the kids feel unwanted again.
Chapter 16
Cammie
Reid hunts around in the bathroom cabinet beneath the sink, and I get lost in the way his back muscles flex as he moves. He’s gorgeous and all alpha. The picture of power and strength. But he’s not like any alpha I’ve ever met.
I broke down this morning when I told them about my past. Not one of those cute, girly cries either. This was heaving, ugly sobs. I swear, half the time I’ve spent around them, I’ve been a snot gremlin. But he held me through it. Finn too.
Being with them is the scariest, most amazing thing I never want to end.
